Easy to make vegan Purin is the perfect comforting  teatime snack that’s loved by both adults and children. Silky, creamy and smooth this chilled dessert is normally made with eggs, milk and sugar and the no bake style like this one is set with gelatine. Today I will show you how to make this delicious vegan pudding with just a few simple ingredients.

( I used a filter on some of the photos to give them a retro vibe )

The quantities makes one pudding : double up as needed.

x1 cup of good quality soymilk (add to a pan) with x2 tablespoons of maple syrup, x1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, x1 teaspoon of coconut palm sugar and a pinch of turmeric for colour. (Mix to combine). Then sprinkle over x1 teaspoon per cup of liquid of agar agar powder. Mix and turn on the heat. Heat up stirring occasionally until you see bubbles forming at the edges ( you don’t want to boil the soy-milk ). Take off the heat and let cool a little then pour into your mould. Leave in the fridge to set. To make your caramel sauce you can use coconut palm sugar with a little water and heat until the sugar thickens. I used some lovely Okinawan sugar which is a brown sugar with a mild sweetness and salty bitter acid favours of liquorice and molasses ( molasses is something you could also use. ) You can buy this from the Wasabi Company.  Heat around 5-6 cubes of the sugar with water until bubbling then stir in a knob of vegan butter (this gives the caramel that real creamy caramel flavour) .

Leave to cool and add a little hot water if to thick. If you don’t want to do this you can just pour over simply some maple syrup to serve.
Take your purin out the fridge, turn it upside down onto your chosen plate or dish and gently squeeze it out your mould. Pour over your caramel sauce and top with some vegan whipped / aerosol cream and a cherry on top if you like .
Slip back in time with Japanese coffee shop summer desserts. Known as Kissaten, these retro cafes started around the Showa period (1926-1989) and are still around today with their retro vibe. Serving up Japanese comfort food like spaghetti, toast and sandwiches. In the summer you may see melon soda floats or coffee jelly with cream.

You can find my coffee jelly recipe on the recipe pages.

As we say a final farewell to summer here in the U.K. a cool wind is blowing today and although it stays a lot hotter later in Japan we can both feel the changing seasons. As I miss Japan so much at the moment not being able to travel I like to make comforting nostalgic Japanese meals. Why not put on some Lo-fi and let the music and food drift your mind off to a Kissaten in Japan.